Role: Chokey Jim, a native kid who's kidnapped and forced into an Indian boarding school

Tribal affiliation: Lumbee (North Carolina)

Home: Grew up in Kennewick, Wash., has spent time in Seattle. Now living in Los Angeles, where he's pursuing his acting career: "I go out on a lot of auditions. It's pilot season now." He's done commercials and a Web series called "The Homes."

Q: Who is Chokey Jim, and what's he like?

A: He's that character who is free-spirited and wild, full of his heart, like nobody else, really. Just does whatever he feels like doing that day. Very dedicated to his tribe and what it means to be a man. He's at that stage in his life where he's the rebel. He's not listening to anybody ... just wild. Really unpredictable. Not the kinda kid you want to cross paths with if you upset him.

Q: You're living in L.A. now, pursuing an acting career. Are you worried about getting typecast in Native American roles?

A: That's always been in the back of my mind and my manager's mind. My team in L.A. are very aware of that issue. The native typecast is one of the hardest to break out of once you get into it. But I've been lucky enough to have people in my life who've steered me away from that. A good opportunity might come up, a period piece, and they say no. They have enough confidence in me that I don't need that to get where I want to go. The projects I go out on are rarely involving Native Americans.

Hollywood's kind of turned it into a joke. They've sort of rammed the whole "natives are werewolves" thing down our throats. That's the big hit. The people who have a hand on my career know that I can do a lot more than just be a native actor. I'm really grateful for that.

Q: Did you know about the flooding of Celilo Falls before the show came up?

A: We didn't study The Dalles Dam or Celilo Falls at all when I was in school. So I became immersed in the story when I got involved in the project. Everything I know about native history in Washington has been that way.

Q: Does this play connect to your own life?

A: I hear stories from Thomas (Morning Owl) all the time, how stories we're telling in the play, he can see it in his mind. He knows what happened, he knows people who were there when it happened. He tells this great story about, when the dam closed, they did it at midnight, because they didn't want anyone to videotape it or anything. Everybody woke up the next morning, and you can imagine, living there, having this huge waterfall the whole time, when everybody's talking, they just have to yell. But you woke up that morning and everything's quiet. It's amazing.

I've been a part of this for five years now. Living in this story naturally gives you a connection. I feel honored to be able to tell the story through what I love to do. And I feel for these people. I remember after we did this the first time, I was like, 'So is there anything we can do to take down the dam?' Because it's all there. Everything's still underwater. They did sonic graphs, and the platforms are still there. I mean, you'd obviously have to rebuild them, but the wood is all there.

Just being native, and knowing about my history, knowing the garbage that native people had to go through, I think every native, no matter what tribe you're from, can relate to something being taken away. Whether it's land or waterfall, it's like ... you know.

Q: What would you most like the audience to walk away with?

A: One of the biggest things in my life was to understand and to be understood. This is a small tribe, 65 people. So if the audience can walk out understanding what happened in a way that the tribe can feel like they've been understood, I'll feel like I've done my job."